Height and diameter dependence of carbon nanotube forests on the porosity and thickness of catalytic layers

Abstract Syntheses of highly ordered carbon nanotube (CNT) forests were studied from the aspect of the quality of CNTs and the properties of Fe-Co catalyst. CNT forests were grown by catalytic chemical vapor deposition. The amount of catalyst was varied in two ways: (1) catalyst layers with different nanostructure were produced with pulsed laser deposition by applying different argon pressures in the deposition chamber, and (2) compact catalyst layers were deposited with different thickness in 1–5 nm range. Our results show that both the nanostructure of the catalyst layer and the layer thickness have a significant role in the formation of catalytic particles, therefore also on the character of CNT growth.